


Dropping Eaves

by kaeorin



Series: Loki's Lullabies [122]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: Avenger Loki (Marvel), Avengers Tower, Comfort, Crushes, Eavesdropping, Embarrassment, F/M, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, Not Actually Unrequited Love, Reader-Insert, Stark Tower
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-26
Updated: 2020-07-26
Packaged: 2021-03-06 08:14:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,159
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25520095
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kaeorin/pseuds/kaeorin
Summary: When Loki overhears a private conversation between you and Wanda, it puts your whole friendship at risk. Maybe.
Relationships: Loki (Marvel)/Reader
Series: Loki's Lullabies [122]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1678240
Comments: 14
Kudos: 254





	Dropping Eaves

It was hard to say exactly what possessed you to do it. You were a grown-up, after all, definitely not a giggling schoolgirl holding whispered conversations with your friends over homework. You shouldn’t have mentioned anything at all. But Wanda had picked up on certain things and she’d asked you about them, and her eyes had flashed with a knowing glee. To be honest, it was a little surprising she’d waited this long. You’d been spending a lot of time with Loki lately—taking walks together and reading together and talking long into the night. You’d developed your own inside jokes, and surely Wanda was not the only one in the Tower who’d noticed the amused glances you gave each other over the dinner table. So when she dragged you down onto a sofa and demanded to know what was happening between you and Loki, you did not immediately shut her down.

You did shrug, trying at first to maintain as much plausible deniability as you could. “I don’t know. He’s funny. I like hanging out with him.” All truth, of course, to a certain degree. 

It was like Wanda could tell what you were thinking. She tilted her head skeptically at you. “That’s _all_?”

Now. When you were in the field, you were an excellent liar. You could make a crowd believe anything you wanted them to, when your life depended on it. There had already been too many times that the only thing that got you to safety was your word and a false air of confidence. But outside of situations like that, lying was hard for you. And so, with Wanda staring at you with those big green eyes of hers, you did the only thing you could: you told her the truth.

“I don’t know!”

Maybe it’d been weighing on you for a while now. You were certain beyond the shadow of a doubt that Loki would never look at you as anything other than a friend—at best. At worst, you were just another tiny little Earthling who would never be as strong as him, or as smart as him, or in any way measure up to the greatness that was him. Even now, after all this time, you found yourself feeling grateful to him any time he lowered himself to spend time with you. Sure, maybe it was pathetic, but he was a celestial _god_. What, were you supposed to feel entitled to his time and attention? But you liked him a _lot_. Like, in a way that was more than just friendly. Here and there, you’d catch yourself slipping into a fantasy about sleeping next to him, or holding his hand, or even stretching up on your tiptoes and having him bend forward to meet you so you could kiss his cheek. 

Wanda pressed her lips into a thin line and shook her head. “I don’t believe that for a second. Tell me what you’re thinking.”

“Come on. There’s nothing to think about. He’s _Loki_. He’s seen more than I could possibly even imagine. He’s strong and old and powerful and I’m... _me_.” You paused, trying to figure out how to get your thoughts together. Thankfully, she didn’t butt in, and only reached out to take one of your hands in both of hers. Something about that emboldened you. “Like...okay, fine, I’m pretty sure I’m in love with him, if that’s what you’re asking, but that doesn’t mean anything. I’m _human_.”

She shook her head and squeezed your hand. “You’re _perfect_.”

That made you laugh a little. “I’m not fishing for compliments, okay? I’m fine with being human. It just makes it especially silly to go all ga-ga- over Loki, because I can’t imagine a world in which he’d ever have these kinds of feelings about a human. And he shouldn’t. If I’m really lucky, maybe he considers me a friend, and that’s _fine_. I’ll find a way past all this and then it’ll be easy again.”

You missed the knowing glint in her eyes. But then she smiled almost sadly at you and pulled you in a for a hug and the conversation moved on to less-terrifying things. It was an otherwise-normal evening.

The following evening, Loki came to your door. You didn’t often retire to your rooms so early, but maybe you were feeling a little under the weather and just wanted some quiet for a while. But you opened the door for him immediately. He was the exception. As long as he didn’t want to drag you along while he pulled something over on Thor, you were willing to spend all night with him. His face looked tense, tight, and you wanted to ask what was up, but you knew that he’d just shrug it off if you did it wrong.

“May I come in?” 

Your heart squeezed in your chest. He wasn’t usually so formal with you. Some small part of you liked it, because it let you imagine that you were some kind of Asgardian nobility or something, but mostly it made you nervous. You just ducked your head into a nod and stepped aside to let him in. You liked seeing him here in your space. 

“What’s up?” Your voice felt artificially bright, and you could only assume that Loki would notice. In hopes of hiding your weirdness, you turned to sit on your own tiny sofa. He paced the room a few times before finally meeting your gaze and coming to sit beside you. “Loki. What is it? Are you okay?”

He nodded, but he looked distracted, and pushed your question aside with a dismissive wave of his hand. “I’m fine, love. I’ve some questions for you, though, if you’ll answer.”

“Of course.” Lying to him felt wrong. You had every reason to believe that, despite his reputation and his various monikers, he’d never lied to you. “Hit me.”

He glanced up at you again, like he couldn’t help himself, and a tiny smile curled the corners of his lips before he lowered his eyes to his hands again. “Don’t be angry with me, but I heard you talking to Wanda last night.”

It took you a minute to figure out what he was saying. Your mind sorted through the many things you’d talked about last night—television shows, training routines, current events—all perfectly-normal things that shouldn’t really be making Loki act this way. But then it hit you like a truck, and your heart dropped into your feet. You pulled away from him, like you could possibly bury yourself so deeply into the corner of the sofa that you could escape Loki’s scrutiny. “Oh god. I’m sorry, Loki. I—” You what? What could you say? How deeply did you need to apologize to him for screwing up what could very well have been the one halfway-decent friendship he had here on Earth?

“You said you’re in love with me?” His voice was still neutral, even as it made heat rise into your cheeks. God, you should have known better than to talk about this with her in public. Irritation stabbed through you—she was so good at being able to tell when Loki was lurking, but she hadn’t said anything to you last night? That was suspicious.

You covered your eyes with one hand and reached out blindly with the other. Your fingers closed around the throw blanket you kept on the back of the sofa, and, without thinking, you dragged it over to hide your face. “I’m so sorry, Loki. I promise I won’t let things get weird. It’s fine. It’s all on me. You don’t need to say anything, okay?”

He didn’t say anything for a while. You heard him shift his weight on the sofa a little, but you did your best to block out any hints of his presence. It’d be for the best if the floor could just open up and swallow you, right? Drop you down multiple stories until you smashed into the ground below and just escaped from this whole mess. 

When he did finally speak again, his voice was close enough to make you flinch. He was kneeling beside you, and hovering. “Because you’re human?”

“Yeah. It’s fine! Please don’t let me make things awkward with this, okay? I never wanted to ruin what we had—eh, that is, if you ever felt like we had _anything_. I really like you as a friend too, and I don’t know if you feel the same way or what—like, about _friendship_ —but I promise I’m not going to get all weird about this.” You were rambling a little, trying desperately to talk yourself out of this situation and also to make him feel like he didn’t need to tiptoe around your feelings. One thing was for certain though: you were _definitely_ being weird about this.

You felt him tug on the blanket, but you gripped it tightly to keep him from pulling it away from you. The idea of looking him in the eyes was horrifying right now. 

“Why are you hiding from me?” His voice was gentle, even amused, but there was a surprising edge to the sound that made you hesitate. He let his hand rest against your forehead through the blanket, and you barely had the mental space to marvel at the fact that he’d found your forehead, as confused as you were by the way he was speaking to you.

“Be...because I’m embarrassed.” Wasn’t that obvious?

“Because you’re in love with me?” If you didn’t know better, you could have sworn that you heard the smile in his voice. 

“Yeah? Because I’m just...me, and you’re... _you_.” Did he not hear _that_ part of the conversation? Were your babbles that unintelligible?

“You are not _just_ anything, love.” He pulled his hand away from you, and the heaviness in his voice made you sorely tempted to pull the blanket away so you could get a better look at him. It was probably wishful thinking. It was probably just your dull mortal ears misunderstanding something again, but he sounded...different. Summoning all your courage, you pulled the blanket down just a little bit, just enough to uncover your eyes. When he saw them, he smiled a little wider and reached up to smooth down your hair. “Hello, there.”

“Hi.” This was all so weird. You felt like a tiny child hiding here under the blanket, but Loki was looking at you with a soft fondness in his eyes that was new and yet...familiar. He looked at you like this a lot. All this time, you’d told yourself that it was friendly, that it was tolerant, but now your silly hopeful heart was trying to turn it into something else. You swallowed hard. “Are you not...weirded out? By me?”

He laughed. “Oh, always. But not because you’re in love with me.” That was enough to make you want to pull the blanket up over your head again but, as though reading your mind, he slipped one hand beneath the blanket a bit to rest against your cheek. “In truth, I’m only happy to hear that my feelings are reciprocated.”

Despite all that silly hopefulness only a few moments ago, it took your brain several long moments to make sense of what he was saying. He was happy that you loved him because he also loved himself? No, that was stupid. He put on a good show for others, but you knew how hard it was for him to even _like_ himself, let alone confess to self-love. But that really only left one other option. “You’re in love with _me_?!”

He threw back his head and laughed again, louder this time. Then he slipped his other hand under the blanket to caress your other cheek. “Is that truly so hard to believe? You lovely, kind, stubborn little thing? Of course you’ve captured my heart.”

You stared at him with wide eyes, and he did not look away for even a second. Sometimes you could see the hints of a lie in his face when he was trying to pull a prank on someone, but he only looked...earnest right now. The idea that he could possibly be truthful in this moment felt ridiculous, but you were in the habit of giving him the benefit of the doubt, so you didn’t press the issue. You would believe him. That he loved you. 

Slowly, you pulled the blanket down even lower off of your face, and you could not miss the way his eyes lowered to take in the sight of your mouth as soon as it’d been exposed. He met your gaze again, a question in your eyes, and you nodded without thinking.

He moved in, then, dipping low to meet you and cupping your cheeks in his hands as he closed his mouth over yours in a kiss.

The first of many.


End file.
